-YOU.

the morning-sun glows in a Promise so
      celestial,
over your tender face, a soul too dear, too
      adorable

for this world  (of envy and hate) itself to
       astound
over  you--a Beauty, never seen or heard
       around;

reflecting in seductive rays across your
      face, with me stricken with your
          gleam,
your heavenly charms which I only fancy
     in my best dream--

that lip that I'd not tire of kissing but in
     my wishful unrest,
and those ******* I long for beyond what
    can be expressed;

a willing prisoner, I'm lost in the mystery
    of your eyes,
and not with my hand, but with all my
    heart I  glimpse your thighs;

your quiet, indifferent airs, your smile
arresting me in heart for longer than a
     while---

remembering, like seeing, you easily
     drives me  most lonely--
of all women, for Beauty aren't you
     the one and only?

                              -by Hakim Kassim.
                             (d. September 03, 2024)

BELATED RELEASE.

for all the wide world that I've seen,
it's but only myself that I could have
      been---

what a way a whole built life to tarnish,
although everything in it we cherish!

the distance seems final which now
     bears us apart,
yet you thrive glowing day and night
     through my heart.

alas of late!  mine's not been with calm
     and ease,
although i struggle, and seek in vain,
     for a  just release:

wearily clinging to mere scenes in
     remembrance
of love, and joy , days of brilliance--

yet yesterday is farther than tomorrow,
no use then to be stuck with mere sorrow,

and time is lent to you by hand of  death,
all you say and do is so scribbled from
           birth;

what a world  for all hope we live in--
knowing that all'd be destroyed which
             we ever begin!

                                        -by
                             Hakim H. Kassim.
                           (d. March 16, 2025)

(for  Agere)

for your casual caresses, to soothe
the daily tread , and make smooth

this cold, cold world for poor soul of me;
for that ever-ready smile that drives me

on by the hour; that look in your eyes,
and for that knowing touch that sways
      away all my 'whys;'

for Time and Space which only draw us
          together
and for all the reasons that make us
          see one  in the other:

I'm thankful to all Nature and Chance
to keep us in that moment that saw us
         together at once.

                    -by Hakim H. Kassim.
                       (May 19, 2025)

There's no other to  grieve your lost hope,
   It's for you to face and cope;
With life's various despairs by yourself
         alone,
And alone must, wrestle  and have it won;
Family would smile with you but for a
        moment,
And no friend could vouchsafe for you
       on Day of Judgement;
For so many will come 'round you for
       embrace,
Yet on your own you must ride on life's
       every chase;
Though we rejoice in hope on every new
       morrow,
One couldn't care less for his own
       brother's sorrow!
    
                                         -by
                              Hakim H. Kassim.  
                        (d.September 21, 2024)

you to me come in parts,
regardless of hearts--

numbing yours ears,
as if no one hears;

then next day you see me and deny
that we ever were close, a passing lie;

in one part you're open and talk,
distancing,  a competitive crosstalk;

in vain my smile, my airs to engage
you in this hapless chat--yet you upstage

me;  next day you come all quiet,
          your eyes
absent elsewhere, thoughts in sighs;

with a new face every time we meet,
when'll our hearts learn to rhyme?

isn't there a future for us together in
        joy--
isn't there in time a chance to enjoy?

                                       -by
                              Hakim H. Kassim.
                              (-d. March 22, 2025)
                              /-Jigjiga.

SHE is known to me in the middle of
      the night,
My most familiar figure blossoming
      over heart and soul--
The slender-tall ethereal figure with soft
      hands holding in holy light
Her small *******, softly on me yet to
      caress along, and cajole
Me in infinite sensual energy and desire
       to gratify,  but to console;
SHE is beyond what in words to express,
       what you usually perceive;
SHE carries me gently over all desire
        passing and carnal,
To draw me safe and sound, for SHE
        would never deceive
All the way till Ultimate Joy in being
        abysmal
In the wilderness that is the One, true
         and actual!

                                         -by
                               Hakim Kassim.
                             (-d. April 15, 2025)

('finalized' version)

           -Over My Grave.

     "I know  not what I could have
                        been, but feel
       I am not what I should be--let it end."
                                                 -Lord Byron
         (to my sister, Fowsia)

Let there be no pretense to sadness,
       or  mourning in vain
Over this my humble grave---my
       long-lost home where at last I
           return
To---where all content lived before
      ambition drove us all insane,
For it's been this grave  I deeply yearn:
I'll care little to cherish, if I could,
       beyond this my very grave,
So much of loss and sorrow has
       been my lot,  the pain undue,
And this world, to me,  has been too
      cold to care, with nothing ultimately
         to save;
From the wealthy trouble undue,
      from the tender-hearted love untrue:
I've seen 'the wise' gather and rule
       perforce
For a tyrant-prince---a dishonest
       man without clue or conscience
Stubbornly pursue to **** his own
       wife,  even after divorce;
Insisting it's of a high 'state need'--so
        atrocious;
No, I'm glad to be home, dear sister,
        to my  sweet nature:
Glad,  glad to awaken at last, glad
        that an unkind world leaves me
           to my dream;
Done, done away with  fast-fading world
      with foredoomed pretense to love and
          adventure;
Glad to awaken from childish
      nightmare, again to be  a real Hakim.

                                           -by
                                 Hakim H. Kassim.
                                 (March 03, 2025/Jigjiga)

a view--
things up in a view.
eyes to see,
heart--in me!
weather in unfairness,
ultimately for goodness.
unhappy, ignored---
unwilling, bored!
but a new-born world--
to reap and wield bold;
nothing from the past to deduce--
it's all a new-born delight to induce!
far-away in the sky clouds merge,
for a new-spring to emerge.

                                           -by
                               Hakim H. Kassim.
                              (-d. April 29, 2025)

Too many gave deeply thought,
  Too many have come and gone,
Too many in dreams truly sought,
  For you to have it lost or won.

Too many climb-up their dreams light
  If only too fast they're washed ashore--
Or left out to be 'acquinted with the
          night,'
With no second chance, beaten to the
          core.

And too many have put their hearts with
         trust
  In brute, brute another's heart,
In the end with no love but driven to
        dust--
  Having foregone any chance to restart.

For too many fail of us to give another
  Try, too readily to treat with hate
The lover with whom they felt together:
  For too many of us lose lest we cannot
         await.

                            -by Hakim H. Kassim.

2025.
a new year dawned casual and high,
but  that  I felt a sullen note of good-bye,

embellished with a truer joy than the
     whole world
could give,  yet I saw we took another
      year for granted despite this cold

lonely world,  and as others went 'happy'
     around with balloons decorous,
nature slip me into a new turn all
     anonymous;

and so all welcomed a new year, smiles
     flowery,
while I was beginning to negotiate an
      end of journey--

isn't a true joy, then, that year anew
with 2025 come with adieu and final
        end?

                      -by Hakim Kassim
                       (Jan.25.2025/Jgjga)

He looked in the mirror and around,
            into his own,
He looked out the window and into
            the evening,
And, fearing strange words from strong
            thoughts,
Hid amid the storms that his heart ruled;
                         yet:
Had known he should not have travelled
            into that good night of thought,
   but could not reverse what his fate writ,
Hated to go there with the thunders he
            bore inside,
  but needed their roar to stay awake,
Felt heart-broken that he'd see home
              no more,
  lest it rained in him who thought in
              the dark!

Do we mistake love for lust?
Or leave out the truth even at price
               of loss?
Can man ever overcome his nature  and
               still breathe?
    

                             -by Hakim Kassim.
                             (c. 1989)

If ever I were to pick who could quite
      understand
Me, in mind and love, across entire
      land--

Who'd be the one love in my arms to
     hold,
Then and now, as throughout my days
     in this world:

The one girl who forever reigns in my
      heart and dream,
The one and only face in my mind
      agleam;

To forever caress and vividly kiss, and
      quietly just watch
Her deep dark eyes, and again sweetly
       touch

Her tender small *******, her slender
       waist to soothe around,
Breath to breath, with little moans in
        sound;

If ever I did, or do, love a ******* earth,
Or ever were to trust heart's hunch
         since birth,

It'd be you, S_,  in heaven or here--
And whatever you do, or don't, 'bout it,
         my vow you hear.

                                         -by
                                Hakim Kassim.
                               (-d. April 25, 2025).